Part XIX

INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMS

1. ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED STATES OVERSEAS INFORMATION AND EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGE FUNCTIONS, 1938-19531

From the termination of the Creel Committee (Committee on Public Information, George Creel, Chairman; established by Executive Order, April 14, 1917) in 1919 to the end of World War II, the only semblance of a concerted overseas information program consisted of the informational activities undertaken in the late 1930's in connection with the Inter-American System. These activities led to the establishment in 1938 of the first specialized machinery in the Department of State to deal with international information functions-the Division of Cultural Relations (Departmental Order 768, July 28, 1938); as well as the creation of the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific and Cultural Cooperation (first meeting as "Committee on Cooperation with the American Republics," May 26, 1938); and, on August 16, 1940, the Office for Coordination of Commercial and Cultural Relations between the American Republics (changed on July 30, 1941 to Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, on March 23, 1945 to Office of Inter-American Affairs; terminated May 20, 1946).

The World War II programs started "from scratch," aside from the activities in the American Hemisphere, and evolved in a more or less haphazard manner. The American Hemisphere program was developed as a supplement to broad commercial and social wartime programs. For other areas, the overseas information program was joined with the domestic information program, first under the Coordinator of Information, then in the Office of War Information (OWI). Thus quite distinct bases of organization were followed in the different

areas.

During World War II, the Department of State's role in the field of

1 Adapted from Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on Overseas Information Programs of the United States, Organization of the United States Overseas Information Functions (Staff Study No. 4; Committee Print, 1953). Department of State Press Releases, XVIII, p. 610. By November 1938 it was generally called the "Inter-Departmental Committee on Cooperation with the American Republics." It became the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific and Cultural Cooperation in December 1945.

international information activities, as distinguished from purely cultural relations, was chiefly that of furnishing essential information and policy guidance to the civilian and military information agencies. Up to 1944, this role was performed in part by the Division of Current Information (established by Departmental Order 206, May 24, 1921), and in part directly by the geographical officers of the Department. In the field of cultural relations, the Division of Cultural Relations and the Interdepartmental Committee on Scientific and Cultural Cooperation were concerned primarily with the inter-American

program.

On January 15, 1944 (Departmental Order 1218), the Department created an Office of Public Information, into which most of its domestic and foreign information functions, including cultural relations, were grouped. The new Office was under the Assistant Secretary for Administration.

On December 20, 1944 (Departmental Order 1301), greater recogni tion was given information functions by the creation of the position of Assistant Secretary in charge of Public and Cultural Relations (later Public Affairs). The name of the Office of Public Information was changed to the Office of Public Affairs-under the new Assistant Secretary. Within this Office a new International Information Division took over the overseas information activities, while the Division of Cultural Cooperation handled the cultural relations program.

With the transfer of the overseas functions of the Office of War Information and the Office of Inter-American Affairs (Executive Order 9608, August 31, 1945), the Department established (Depart mental Order 1336) the Office of International Information and Cultural Affairs (OIC). The Office of Public Affairs was left with the responsibility for the Department's work in domestic public affairs. By the end of 1945, the OIC had emerged as the agency chiefly respon sible for the administration of the Department's overseas informational and cultural relations functions. The office contained five operating divisions: Press and Publications, Broadcasting, Motion Pictures, Exchange of Persons, and Libraries and Institutes. It remained essentially unaltered until the fall of 1947, when its program was greatly curtailed because of drastic reductions in its appropriations. On August 15, 1947, the title of OIC was changed (Departmental Announcement 685) to the Office of Information and Educational Exchange (OIE).

Following the passage of the Smith-Mundt Act (United States Information and Educational Exchange Act, Public Law 402, January 27, 1948) and the granting of additional funds, OIE was split into two units (Departmental Announcements 12, 14, 15, April 22, 1948): Exchange (OEX). The Smith-Mundt Act and the Fulbright Act (Public Law 584, August 1, 1946) 2 made possible great expansion of

the exchange program.

Late in 1949, the Department of State created (see Public Notice 34,

1 A Decade of American Foreign Policy, pp. 1224–1234.

2 Ibid., pp. 1235–1236.

March 6, 1950) the position of a General Manager, who was made responsible for formulating and executing the over-all International Information and Educational Exchange Program (IE), within the policy directives of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. On January 16, 1952, a major reorganization (Departmental Announcement 4) established the International Information Administration (IIA), described as a "semiautonomous" unit in the Department.1 The Administrator of the new unit combined the duties of the General Manager of IE with most of the overseas information responsibilities of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, reporting directly to the Secretary and Under Secretary of State.

The United States Information Agency (USIA) was established on August 1, 1953,2 as independent of the Department of State, but subject to policy guidance therefrom. USIA also absorbed the information functions of the Mutual Security Agency and the Technical Cooperation Administration, already to some extent integrated under IIA. The exchange program under the Fulbright and Smith-Mundt Acts and certain other legislation remained in the Department of State to be administered by the International Educational Exchange Service (IES) under the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs.

2. THE CAMPAIGN OF TRUTH: Address by the President, April 20, 1950 (Excerpt)3

I am convinced that we should greatly extend and strengthen our efforts for making the truth known to people in all the world."

Most of us have recognized for years, of course, how important it is to spread the truth about freedom and democracy. We are already doing some very good work-through the Voice of America and the United States information offices and libraries in many parts of the world, through the exchange of students, through the United Nations

1 See infra, doc. 5. 2 See infra, doc. 7.

Delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington; Department of State Bulletin, May 1, 1950, pp. 669–672. This address marked the beginning of a greatly expanded information program, with further impetus given by the first Soviet atomic explosion, a National Security Council reappraisal of the Nation's position in the world (calling for, in part, an expanded and aggressive information program), and the Communist invasion of the Republic of Korea on June 25, 1950. Congress appropriated $79 million for the fiscal year 1951 in support of the expanded program, which was 21⁄2 times the appropriation granted for fiscal year 1950, and 4 times that for 1949. The basic authority under which the program operated in the Department of State was the Fulbright Act of 1946 (PL 584, 79th Cong., 2d sess.; A Decade of American Foreign Policy, pp. 12351236) and the Smith-Mundt Act (the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948, PL 402, 80th Cong., 2d sess.; ibid., pp. 1224-1234). The Psychological Strategy Board, established by Presidential directive of June 20, 1951 (infra, doc. 4), attempted to provide high-level guidance "for the more effective planning, coordination and conduct, within the framework of approved national policies, of psychological operations.